The White House assured this Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un intends to visit Russia to discuss with his counterpart Vladimir Putin the sale of North Korean arms for the war in Ukraine.
According to the American newspaper The New York Times, the Kremlin wants to get artillery shells and anti-tank missiles from North Korea, while Kim wants to get advanced technology for satellites and nuclear submarines, as well as food aid for his population.
Why is the possible meeting and exchange of weapons technology between the two leaders causing so much alarm?
What is known about the meeting?
The versions about a possible meeting between Kim and Putin gained strength this Monday after the publications of the American newspapers The New York Times and The Washington Post.
According to prestigious newspapers, the North Korean leader plans to travel to Russia this month to speak with the Russian president. To meet Putin, his idea would be to travel from Pyongyang, possibly by armored train, to Vladivostok, in Russia’s Pacific short, according to The New York Times.
Putin and Kim would meet on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum, to be held between September 12 and 15. at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.
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Kim Jong-un would travel by armored train.
Have Putin and Kim Jong-Un already met in the past?
Yes. The support of Russia, a historical ally of Pyongyang, was crucial for decades to get out of isolation and their relations date back to the founding of North Korea.
But in the 1980s, when it wanted to reconcile with South Korea, the Soviet Union cut its funding to the North, and the demise of the USSR was a heavy blow to Pyongyang.
The Russian Federation and North Korea held their first summit in 2000, when a joint declaration on economic cooperation and diplomatic exchanges was signed.
The signing of the agreement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the late Kim Jong Il, father and predecessor of North Korea’s current leader Kim Jong Un, marked a milestone in the revitalization of bilateral relations.
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![North Korea](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/07/26/64c1dab9690ff.jpeg)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian Defense Minister Seguéi Shoigu.
Then, Kim Jong Un paid his first official visit to Russia in 2019, as he sought closer ties with his traditional ally, in the midst of the crisis with Washington over nuclear weapons.
And it is that North Korea is one of the few countries in the world that have recognized the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. by Russia in 2014 and by four other regions in eastern and southern Ukraine in September 2022.
Kim also met in July with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in the North Korean capital, giving him a tour of an arms expo displaying nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and drones.
What does Russia want from North Korea?
According to The New York Times, citing US and allied officials, Putin wants North Korea to sell Russia artillery and anti-tank missiles for the war in Ukraine.
In fact, the United States assured last week that, despite denying it, North Korea has already supplied rockets and infantry missiles to Moscow for the Wagner paramilitary group in the conflict in Ukraine. The delivery, Washington says, took place in 2022.
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North Korea probably has the largest reserves of artillery shells
According to Joseph Dempsey, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Moscow is interested in artillery shells that can be easily integrated and can be used promptly in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.
“North Korea probably has the largest stockpiles of Soviet-era legacy artillery and artillery shells that could be used to replenish Russian inventories depleted in the Ukraine conflict,” Dempsey told AFP.
Cho Han-bum, a senior fellow at the Korean Institute for National Unification, says for his part, Pyongyang was able to supply Russia with munitions – and could continue to do so – because “it has been preparing for war for 70 years.”
![war in ukraine](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/06/13/648882e194ec9.jpeg)
Russia seeks more weapons to face the war in Ukraine.
Anatoly Stepanov / AFP
Kim has been steadfast in his support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Putin praised Pyongyang’s “steadfast support for special military operations against Ukraine” in July.
And what does North Korea want in return?
Analysts say Russia has everything impoverished North Korea needs. “Russia is a food-exporting country, a fertilizer-exporting country, an energy-exporting country,” Cho says.
North Korea could also seek the transfer of “key technologies, knowledge and manufacturing capacity so that the arms industry of
North Korea move forward and be more sustainable,” Dempsey added.
A 2022 UN report highlights the role a North Korean diplomat in Moscow played in acquiring ballistic missile technologies and trying to obtain some 3,000 kilograms of steel for Pyongyang’s submarine program.
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![Korea](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/07/27/64c268ee3e2d8.jpeg)
Arms Exhibition-2023 in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Have Russia and North Korea already confirmed the meeting?
No. This Tuesday, Russia refused to confirm US reports about a possible summit between the leaders, although his government mentioned the possibility of organizing joint military exercises.
“No, we cannot (confirm it), we have nothing to say on this issue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters who asked him about the reports from Washington.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, for his part, said on Monday that they would discuss with North Korea the possibility of organizing joint military exercises. “We discussed it with the whole world, including North Korea. Why not? They are our neighbours,” the minister was quoted as saying by the local TASS news agency.
From Pyongyang the information is scarce. Therefore, so far there is no pronouncement on the possible visit of Kim Jong-Un to Russian territory.
Why are you worried about the possible encounter?
The announcement has caused alarm and rejection.
The United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan said last week at the United Nations that any agreement to increase cooperation between
Russia and North Korea would violate Security Council resolutions banning arms deals with Pyongyang, resolutions that Moscow had backed.
According to South Korea, the transfer of weapons and technology between Russia and North Korea could be considered a violation of various provisions included in the nine resolutions that have been approved to date by the UN Security Council – of which Russia is a permanent member and whose favorable votes are essential to approve the opinions, since it enjoys the right of veto- pto punish North Korean weapons developments.
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![President of South Korea](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/files/crop/uploads/2023/04/26/64495dad88571.r_1693920490430.0-0-1760-987.jpeg)
President Yoon Suk and Joe Biden. Both countries oppose the rapprochements.
“The government, together with the international community, closely follows cooperative relations involving North Korea and wants to remind that all United Nations member countries have a duty to comply with Security Council resolutions,” he said. an official from the Seoul Ministry of Unification, in charge of relations with the North, who requested anonymity when speaking to the Yonhap news agency.
“Cooperation between North Korea and a neighboring country, in all its forms, should be carried out in a direction that does not harm international order and peace,” added the official, who considered that the chances of Pyongyang and Moscow signing a military exchange are increasing given the rapprochement exhibited between both countries.
Cooperation between North Korea and a neighboring country, in all its forms, must be carried out in a direction that does not harm order
US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said Monday that Washington urged the North Koreans “to cease their arms negotiations with
Russia and to honor Pyongyang’s commitments not to supply or sell weapons to Russia.”
According to analysts, to avoid accusations of non-compliance with the resolutions, the two allies are likely to “reach the deal behind closed doors with no official announcement,”
“Kim and Putin are expected to simply say that they have agreed to cooperate in a wide range of areas without specifying what they are,” Cheong Seong-chang, director of North Korean studies at the Sejong Institute, told AFP.
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![Russia sends strong warning: 'We can destroy any adversary'](https://www.eltiempo.com/files/article_content_new/uploads/2023/03/28/642353f1574b1.jpeg)
Vladimir Putin, President of Russia.
EFE/EPA/MIKHAEL KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL
The truth is the meeting provides an opportunity for Putin to further strengthen ties with a country outside his sphere of influence of the United States and Europe.
According to Artyom Lukin, a professor at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, quoted by Reuters, “Moscow’s ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine has marked the beginning of a new geopolitical reality in which the Kremlin and (North Korea) may grow ever closer, perhaps even to the point of resurrecting the quasi-alliance relationship that had existed during the Cold War.”
A closer relationship scares the world, as it may imply greater cooperation on arms issues. For what governments fear, according to BBC News, a strategically dangerous cooperation.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With AFP and EFE
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